These undergrads, in particular, made a huge contribution to the Anderson Lab. Their induction in the Anderson Lab Pantheon of Excellence commemorates their epic contribution.
William “Austin” Haney (Fall 2013-Spring 2015)
- Austin collected the uDNA data for the Grasshopper Sparrow project and made a major contribution to the uDNA data set for the Nine-banded Armadillo study. He was such an essential player that Dr. Anderson made him the unofficial “lab manager”. Austin has great integrity and is an all around awesome person (and also one heck of a guitar player). Austin finished his MS with Dr. Uyeno (where he is studying hagfish jaw functional morphology) and his is now working on his Ph.D. at Oregon State University.
Fran Johnson (Spring 2014-Spring 2015)
- Fran worked on the uDNA data set for the Nine-banded Armadillo. She poured and loaded the besting looking genogels that I have ever seen in my life and clearly inherited the hands of a surgeon (literally). She was an amazingly dependable lab assistant and did this while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and while being an all-star on the NCAA championship VSU softball team. She was arguably one of the best student athletes in recent history at VSU and one of the smartest, most hard-working kids that I have seen come through our program. She just finished here PA at South University.
Fran’s trophy case
Biology Department Senior Award; Marie Leonard Senior Book Award; Marsha Paulk Award; David and Cecelia Ratcliffe Scholarship Award; CRC Press Chemistry Achievement Award; VSU Student- Athlete of the Year : 2013-2014 & 2014-2015; VSU FCA Female Athlete of the Year 2014-2015.
Austin Haney and Fran Johnson presenting their work at the VSU Undergraduate Research Symposium (2015)
Bianca Farley (Spring 2013-Spring 2014)
- Bianca was an integral early member of the Anderson Lab. She worked on both the Spanish moss and Nine-banded Armadillo projects, and even did some exploratory field work on the Florida Water Snake. Bianca was an incredible student, an incredible laboratory assistant, and I am forever grateful for her nerdy enthusiasm. Bianca just finished medical school at Morehouse and is starting her residence in internal medicine.
Bianca’s trophy case
Marjorie R. Carter Award; David and Cacelia Ratcliffe Scholarship; Salter Scholarship
Bianca Farley and Dr. Anderson presenting some of their research on Spanish moss at the VSU Undergraduate Research Symposium (2014)